In prior art business telecommunication switching systems that provide for both wireless and wired telephone terminals, a problem exists in that users have both a wireless terminal and a wired terminal. Each of these terminals has a different telephone number. The problem is that to reach a user a caller must call both numbers if the user does not answer at the first called number. Prior art systems have attempted to solve this problem by utilizing call coverage where the call is first placed to the wired terminal, then, if that terminal does not answer, the call is transferred to the wireless terminal. The problem with this solution is that the call must first ring the wired terminal before it is transferred to call coverage at the wireless terminal. In addition, the user must have two complete terminals.
Further, a major cost in wired business telecommunication systems is the cost of installing the telephone links (telephone wires) to interconnect the wired terminals to the business telecommunication switching system. Not only is the initial cost high for installing the telephone links but subsequent maintenance and re-locations add to this cost. Wireless terminals do not have the cost of the telephone links; however, by their portable nature, wireless terminals are reasonably simple devices or have extremely tiny buttons to provide more sophisticated telephone features. Whereas, users accept the limitations of the wireless terminals while they are away from their desk; it is highly desirable that when a user is sitting at their desk that they have a full functional business telephone terminal.
One solution in the prior art to this problem is to have a cordless phone that shares the same telephone link with a business telephone terminal. In this manner, if the user is away from their desk and has the cordless telephone, they can answer calls directed to their wired business telephone terminal. The disadvantage with this system is that the cordless telephone has limited range and does not function well where there are large numbers of cordless telephones due to the limitations in communication bandwidth.